Sunbury City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XV
Loading Areas and Access Drives
§ 175-108 Design standards.
A.
Whenever required and/or provided under the provisions of this chapter, all parking and loading areas and access drives shall be designed according to the following standards:
(1)
Except in the case of single- and two-family dwellings, the general layout shall be such that there will be no need for motorists to back over or onto public rights-of-way.
(2)
Access drives shall be covered with a hard surfaced material and shall not exceed 35 feet in width within 12 feet of the street right-of-way line, except as increased by the curb radii. When driveways cross sidewalks, the section crossing the sidewalk shall be paved with materials approved by the City Engineer.
(3)
The number of access drives shall not exceed two per lot on any one street frontage. The Zoning Hearing Board may grant permission for additional access drives where required to meet exceptional circumstances and where frontage of unusual length exists.
(4)
Access drives shall not cross the street right-of-way line:
(a)
Within 40 feet of the street right-of-way line of an intersecting street and in no case less than 10 feet from the point of tangency when the intersecting street lines are joined by a curve. Such access drives shall be located on major streets where practical, in a manner to permit safe ingress and egress.
(b)
Within five feet of a fire hydrant, catch basin or drain inlet.
(c)
Within 40 feet of an access drive on the same lot, except that in the case where dual access drives are deemed necessary to permit safe ingress and egress, this dimension may be reduced to not less than six feet between two access drives, when authorized as a variance by the Zoning Hearing Board.
(d)
Within three feet of a property line within all districts, unless two adjoining owners mutually agree to a common access drive in a legally recorded instrument.
(5)
Access to public highway or street shall be controlled in the interest of public safety. The off-street parking, loading and service areas on all properties used for any purpose other than single-family residences required by this article shall be physically separated from the highway or street by a curb, pipe rail, fence or a planting strip.
(6)
General safety requirement, sight distance. Driveways shall be located in safe relationship to sight distance and barriers to vision and shall not exceed a slope of 10% within 12 feet of the street line. Where drives enter a bank through a cut, unless a retaining wall is used, the shoulders of the cut shall be graded to not more than 1/2 foot vertical to one foot horizontal within 10 feet of the point the drive intersects with the right-of-way.
(7)
In addition to the off-street parking spaces as required in Article XIV, all commercial and industrial establishments, hospitals or sanatoriums and other similar uses shall provide adequate off-street area for loading and unloading of supplies to and from vehicles.
(8)
In no case where a building is erected, converted or enlarged shall the public right-of-way be used for loading and unloading space.
B.
Submission of plans. A scaled drawing of proposed off-street parking and loading areas, access drives and walks shall be submitted as part of the required plot plan. Any plan requiring access onto a state highway shall be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in addition to municipal approval.
C.
Adjustment of standards. The Zoning Hearing Board may reduce or increase the standards established in this section, when authorized as a variance, to adjust to existing conditions wherein a hardship would be created from the strict application of these regulations, provided that the public safety is assured.